Goin’ to the Dogs – from Life!

 

Barnaby Sherlock patiently sits for me as I help raise funds for PAWS. (photo courtesy of ArtSpot)

When I look back on the 15 years that I’ve been drawing, a few experiences come to mind as the most intense. Being a correspondent at the Manchester Urban Sketchers Symposium would be near the top of the list. My early days of one-minute life drawing poses used to leave me breathless (both exhilarated and exhausted). But I’d have to say that last week’s benefit for PAWS beat both of those as the single-most intense drawing experience of my life!

What made it so intense? Beginning at ArtSpot, people and their dogs were lined up halfway down the block all evening, waiting for a portrait! When I participated in the same fundraiser last year, the time pressure was the same, but the work was divided among four artists. This year, one had to cancel at the last minute, so three of us carried the load for the full three hours.

8/20/26 Bob

Nessie had the most amazing eyelashes!

The other big difference for me was that of the 20 portraits I made, only three were from photos – all the rest were from sniffing, squirming life! Last year, it was the other way around: I started out doing a couple from life, but I soon realized it was impractical, given the time constraint. For the rest of that evening, I used photo references provided by the clients or that I had snapped myself. Using photos, though, can also be challenging (as I’ve learned from the many commissioned pet portraits I’ve made) when they are poorly lighted or blurry. Taking good photos of excited, distracted dogs in fading light isn’t easy, either.

Barnaby Sherlock

Phoebe Anne

When the first couple of clients said they wanted portraits from life, I was delighted – drawing from life instead of from photos is certainly my preference anytime. Up for the challenge, I decided I would continue drawing all of them from life unless a client showed up with a photo instead of a dog. At any time, I could have taken my own photos, but once I got started, I just kept going.

Lilo

Phe Phe (pronounced like Fifi). Chatting with Phe Phe's mom and another customer who had a part Chihuahua, I learned that a disproportionate number of mixed-breed dogs show Chihuahua lineage when they get their genes tested. Those little dogs get around!

Exhausted by the end, I still had a blast at this unique opportunity. It gave my confidence a big boost that I can sketch any dog’s portrait in less than nine minutes – from life!

Bee Paper mixed-media sketchbook

Material notes: Like last year, I kept materials simple, bringing only my current favorite Pentel Sign Brush Pen, a broader Kuretake Brush Writer and a gray Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Soft Brush Pen for shading. Once I got going, though, I mostly used only the Pentel with occasional help from the Kuretake.

For paper, ArtSpot offered each artist their choice of sketchbook to use for the benefit. I chose the same book I used last year: a 6-by-6-inch Bee Paper Co. Super Deluxe Mixed Media spiralbound sketchbook (the spiral binding was most practical for ripping out pages to give to clients). Although I would never choose a spiralbound book for urban sketching, I have grown fond of this Bee paper after using up the remains of last year’s book on Pencilvember and other animal portraits. It takes everything I’ve used on it beautifully – colored pencil and crayon, both wet and dry, various juicy brush pens and markers. If it weren’t for the darn wire binding, I would happily use Bee books for general urban sketching.

Happy 50th Birthday, Freeway Park!

 

8/22/26 Freeway Park

USk Seattle was invited to a very special birthday party: Freeway Park’s 50th! Initiated by civic leader Jim Ellis, the five-acre park became the first in the world to be built over a freeway. The Freeway Park Association put on a fun event last Saturday to celebrate with live music, art activities, free tamales and popsicles, photo opportunities and other ways to enjoy the unique space that the park offers.

Gabi Campanario and Sketcher Press shared a canopy with USk Seattle to introduce park visitors to Urban Sketchers. Quite a few new members joined us, and I expect a few more will join the Facebook group and our mailing list later. And what a massive turnout: I counted nearly 40 in our throwdown group photo!

Since I hadn’t sketched at Freeway Park since before the pandemic (which was the last time USk had an outing there), the event was a good reintroduction for me, too. I warmed up with a few gestures of buskers and visitors playing ladder toss on the lawn (below). I was amused that the electric violinist and the Chihuahua both wore red shoes!

Although I’m not a fan of Brutalist architecture, that’s what the park is all about, so I found a spot to capture some of it (top of post). What I do appreciate about Freeway Park is the beautiful integration of all those hard, brutal, geometric lines with the organic softness of so many trees and other plants. It’s a unique urban space unlike any other in Seattle (or anywhere in the world, for that matter).

Now that Freeway Park is back on our radar, we’ll be sure to plan more USk outings there again.

What a turnout!

Sketcher Press and USk Seattle's canopy

Black-Eyed Susans

 

8/20/26 Black-Eyed Susans, Maple Leaf neighborhood

Although my walk was getting hotter than I like, I couldn’t resist making a quick stop to catch these Black-Eyed Susans near the sidewalk. After sketching them hastily with a brush pen and coloring the petals with a yellow Museum Aquarelle pencil, I was disappointed that they didn’t pop as I wanted them to. Usually adding a dark background does the trick, so I used a dark blue-violet Neocolor II crayon. I snapped a photo (below), thinking I was done.

About to close the sketchbook, I looked again and thought the flowers still lacked pop. Although I don’t usually use water in Uglybooks, and I like the raw, rustic look that dry crayons impart on colored paper, I thought I’d try applying water to the Neo II to see the result (at left). I avoided fully activating the color to retain some of the dry look. I like it.

By the way, do you know the difference between Black-Eyed Susan and Brown-Eyed Susan? I wasn’t sure which these were, or even if those were just two colloquial names for the same flower. They are, however, different: Brown-Eyed Susans have rounder, shorter petals, while Black-Eyes have slender, tapered petals.

What did we ever do before the Internet?

Neocolor II background before activation

Prepping for a Dry Fall

 

Anticipating a dry fall!

The summer of ’26 has been one of ambivalence. On the one hand, the weather has been mostly beautiful: only a few days of extreme heat, and only a few of smoke (so far). I’ve been sketching outdoors to my heart’s content.

On the other hand, it’s been the hardest summer of my life.

Our foggy mornings lately and the blushes of color I’m seeing in some trees are hinting that fall isn’t far off. Although I have no regrets about summer ending, I still feel a bit wistful.

To waylay a post-summer slump, I decided I needed a fresh sketching approach for autumn. Not just a refreshed palette but a medium I haven’t focused on for urban sketching in a long time: Non-soluble colored pencils! Seems like every couple of years or so, I pull out a selection of dry colored pencils (often a secondary triad, which I especially like in the fall) and tell myself I’m going to use them without the help of water-soluble materials. Although I enjoy it for a short time, I eventually go back to the speed and convenience of water-soluble pencils and crayons.

One mistake I’ve made in the past is to continue using an A5-size sketchbook as I usually do with water-soluble materials. Filling an A5 page takes significantly longer without the efficiency of water to spread color. This time, I’ll probably still carry an A5-size book (likely a Stillman & Birn Zeta) for versatility, but my plan is to work on a half-page at a time (a size I’m accustomed to from using A6-ish Uglybooks). We’ll see if that keeps me going longer.

I pulled out my color journal recently to trial a color palette (below). Recalling all the joy I had last winter working from photos with Derwent Drawing pencils, those pencils will form the bulk of my palette. Even the largest set, though, is severely lacking certain hues; specifically, bright reds, magenta and dark greens. I pulled in Prismacolors to fill those holes. Knowing me, I’ll probably change up the palette before I even start using it, but I’m showing what I have so far just because I’m excited about it.

I'll probably further refine the palette, but here are the finalists in Derwent Drawing and Prismacolor non-soluble pencils.

Now when the trees start turning in earnest, I’ll welcome it with something fun and potentially illuminating.

Selfie as Dog

 

8/16/26 Self-portrait from mirror

Roy texted us a self-portrait he had made that morning. He challenged Mary Jean and me to make self-portraits by the end of the day for Selfie Sunday (which I guess is a thing, as I’ve long seen the hashtag, but I’ve never participated).

The last time I made a self-portrait, I had treated myself like a dog. I decided to do the same again, but this time I used a brush pen. Unusual for a self-portrait, I like this one, even with the severe selfie scowl.

Deep Fog in August

 

8/14/26 8:15 a.m., Maple Leaf neighborhood

The day dawned to a deep fog of the type we usually don’t see until autumn. Say it ain’t so!

Material and process notes: When drawing fog, I tend to use graphite, but on a whim I tried a Derwent Drawing pencil (Midnight 6710). Soft, creamy pencils like this make me want to bear down and use them like crayons, so it took some self-control to use as little pressure as possible.

Working on this sketch, I thought of all the exercises I’ve done from instruction books and in classes to make a gradient of values using one pencil, beginning from the lightest value and working darker. Drawing fog is the on-location version of that exercise: I must begin with the lightest value (the distant fir) so that I’ll know how much darker to make the other values.

Two Moments at Green Lake

 

8/13/26 Green Lake

I can’t count the many times I’ve sketched at Green Lake by now, yet I never tire of the (mostly) same subjects and similar compositions: trees, water, the opposite shoreline, ground shadows. Each is a new challenge cushioned by the familiar.

While the resident geese, too, have been sketched many times, I thought I found a fresh composition. A (human) couple were sitting on the bench when I began, but I went against my own urban sketching policy and didn’t sketch them first. Sure enough, they got up and left by the time I’d sketched the geese. Again, a challenge cushioned by the familiar.